-The Hindu Business Line Bengaluru: Farmers in Karnataka, like their counterparts in other states who have been impacted by the drop in prices and cash shortage triggered by demonetisation, have another problem to contend with — crop loss on account of the failure of rains. It has been a kind of a triple whammy for Farmers in the region. Besides being forced to reap a lower kharif output on account of a...

-PTI Karnal in Haryana and Patiala in Punjab have been chosen as model districts for implementing orders to stop stubble burning, the National Green Tribunal has been informed. The state governments told the green panel that both these districts have been selected due to high rural population and agricultural activity in these areas. A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar directed the Haryana and Punjab governments to submit complete action plans...

The Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) election manifesto for 2014 Lok Sabha election says that if elected to the Centre, it will then "(p)ut in place welfare measures for Farmers above 60 years in age, small and marginal Farmers and farm labours", among other things. Despite the formation of a BJP led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre in 2014, the latest available data on farm suicides from the...

-The Hindu Court asks States why lands acquired for SEZs remain barren and abandoned Invoking the legal victory of West Bengal’s Farmers over the mighty state in Singur, West Bengal, their compatriots across the country, stripped of their agricultural lands by their governments in the name of Special Economic Zone (SEZ), found their voice in the Supreme Court on Monday. A three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice J.S. Khehar asked the Centre and...

-Economic and Political Weekly P K Joshi (p.joshi@cgiar.org), Avinash Kishore (a.kishore@cgiar.org) and Devesh Roy (d.roy@cgiar.org) are with the International Food Policy Research Institute, New Delhi. While outlining strategies to increase availability of pulses at affordable prices, it is argued that increasing domestic production of pulses is the only option. Access to one or two protective irrigation sources during the growing season can lead to sizeable increases in pulse production. The har khet...